Welcome
Hello from Ron Springsteen. You can contact me here. I have had a long-standing interest in national, local, and family history. I hope to share my exploration of the people, places, and events that have brought us to this day and that serve as a foundation for the future.
Our family
For those of us who are fortunate, our families are our home in this life. We live as individuals, yet our family context shapes us in both blessings and trials. My wife Dee grew up in the Chicago area where her ancestors settled as immigrants from Bohemia and Belgium in the late 1800s. I was born and raised around Sheridan, Michigan, where Dee and I lived a good part of our married life.
Most of my ancestors came to Michigan after early settlement in New England and New York. My most recent European ancestors came from Hesse, Württemberg, and England in the mid-1800s.
Research
I’ve been interested in history and genealogy since the 1960s but didn’t find time for more than occasional family research until recent years. Over time I have gathered material that I hope to share for the benefit of our extended family.
My research is focused not on distant lineage but on families and the communities in which they lived. I’m not looking for heroes, but for people quite like us dealing with life as best they could.
I took the plunge into DNA testing after reading Michael D. Lacopo’s blog, Hoosier Daddy?. I’ve learned that traditional and DNA-based research work together to find living relatives and point to our common ancestors. I have included resources for genetic genealogy on my Research links page.
Dee’s ancestors
These are some of the family names I have discovered in Dee’s ancestry, primarily in the Chicago area, Belgium, and Bohemia (now the Czech Republic): Bednar, Dlouhy, Ebenstreit, Hrobař, Juza, Karel, Macak, Macek, Meert, Prochazka, Rothbaur, Smolar, Sršeň, Straka, Van Gucht, Van Riet, Van Zandt (Van Sande), Verbelen, Vermeir, Vyslyšel, Zelenka, and Zoubek.
Ron’s ancestors
I’ve had considerably more success in exploring my ancestry, largely because most of my family lines have been in the British colonies and the United States for centuries. Some of the family names in my ancestry are Abbott, Aden, Admiston, Ames/Eames, Barnard, Bartholds, Borton, Bowers, Brown, Case, Chamberlain, Cheesman, Chevin, Chew, Clifton, Crippin, Curtain/Kirton, Curtis, David, Davis, de Groot, Dennis, Elkinton, Fickes, Filmore, Fisher, Green, Haines, Harger, Howe, Humphris, Johnson/Johnston, Keck, Kidder, Kuntzman, Kurtz, Lewis, Little, Lord, Martin, Milliman, Mith, Moore, Palmer, Peacock, Powell, Robinett, Robinson, Rowe, Rowley, Schermerhoorn, Seger, Simmonds, Smith, Springsteen, St John, Taylor and Yaner.
11 Comments
Jack Stretch
I saw that Dee had 3 markers matching my DNA on 23 & Me.
I am related to the Hrobar family and have some genealogy information about them and willing to share what I have.
Feel free to contact me.
Ron
Aha, a new match! That’s a really nice shared segment on chromosome 11. Thanks for contacting me, Jack. I know very little about the Hrobars and Srsens so I would love to know more. Dee doesn’t have many close matches who have tested.
Dale Jay Dennis
Hi, Ron. This is Dale Jay Dennis; I am a descendant of Thomas Dennis and Sally Ann Osmun through William Riley Dennis. His son, Thomas Julian Dennis, was my grandfather. I have found these names on your Ancestry pedigree display, but I cannot see where these names tie in with John S. Dennis, who you highlight for his Civil War service. I had been told that Thomas Dennis paid someone to take his conscription, so did not know of anyone else in the family who had served in the Civil War. I am intrigued by the Ohio connection, as I have studied the Andrews Raid, and the volunteers for that operation came from the 21st and 33rd Ohio Volunteers. Not connected with John S. directly, but interesting all the same. As it happens, my younger brother is John M. Dennis.
Ron Springsteen
Dale, thanks for responding! John Samuel Dennis was Thomas’s younger brother. My wife Dee and I were in California a couple of weeks ago visiting our son.
Ron
Dale Jay Dennis
Hi, Ron.
A little more on my research: while in England before returning from overseas duty with the US Army, my wife and I did some research in Lincoln Castle. There I found the marriage records for Timothy Dennis and Edis Parker, the records for two children born to them, and the deaths of both children and their mother. I also was able to see and physically handle the executed will for Timothy’s father, Thomas Dennis, and had a copy of the document made, which I still have somewhere…. It amounted to a bequest of £55, with the same bequest to other children, but the total of his estate did not amount to £200 when he died, so a lesser amount was probably given. His wife was the executrix.
Ron Springsteen
How wonderful to have held our ancestor Thomas Dennis’s will. If you find it sometime and can scan it, I would be grateful for a digital copy. I would be interested in any of the other record copies as well. Dee and I had our hands on my 4x-great-grandfather Staats Springsteen’s 1825 will and probate file back 2006 or so, but the last time I checked the court no longer knew where it was.
Dale Jay Dennis
I have seven siblings, but only two of my sisters have done Ancestry DNA. They probably have shown up in your DNA findings previously.
Ron Springsteen
I’ll look for your sisters.
Ron
David McEldery left this comment on the Research links page in 2016. I’m moving it here.
Hi Ron, you left a message in my wife’s 23&Me mailbox (Kathy McEldery). She originally went to 23&Me regarding family medical research, not genealogy. I’m the family historian for both of our families and the one you want to deal with. I’ve got two trees for Kathy’s families on Ancestry.com and can connect you with those if you give me your Ancestry user/tree name. Kathy’s maiden name was Richardson. Her paternal gt-gt-grandfather was Henry Davis Richardson, who was born in Wyoming County, New York. His father was Simeon Richardson, who was married to a Daggett back when the New York and Connecticut boundaries were changing. One of Kathy’s gt-grandmothers was born in Wayne County, MI, and lived in Ionia County, was married in both Ionia and Montcalm Counties. Her maiden name was Ella Ida Cranson. Anyway, all this is well documented in our tree. The Boyers are in Kathy’s maternal line.
Stephen Deahl
I don’t know if any of what I have to say is related to any ancestors of yours, but I have a Macek story and a Sherman story.
In the summer of1984, I participated in West Virginia University’s “study abroad” program, which was held in Salzburg, Austria. If you’ve ever seen the movie “The Sound of Music,” you’ve seen where I went to school that summer–kind of. In the movie, the exteriors of what was supposedly the Trapp family residence were actually of Leopoldskron. Leopoldskron is a building famous throughout Austria. It’s a small palace built by a corrupt bishop in the 1700’s. From 1918 to 1938, Leopoldskron was owned by the famous director Max Reinhardt. I went to school in a building that was originally the horse stables for Leopoldskron. We WVU students didn’t live in a dormitory. Rather, we boarded with local families.
I lived at 22 Clemens-Krauss-Strasse with a widowed lady named Martha Macek. Martha was probably born in the mid-to-late 1920’s.
One time, Martha was talking about her mother-in-law. “She lived a very interesting life,” Martha told me–and then proceeded to tell me her mother-in-law’s life story.
Martha’s mother-in-law was born in Russia sometime circa 1890-1900. Her family was German. When Catherine the Great was czarina, she invited people from Western Europe to move to Russia for the purpose of modernizing the country. The most famous group of Russian Germans is the Volga Germans, but there are other groups as well.
Martha’s mother-in-law worked as a housekeeper in the home of a Russian general. Her family had arranged a marriage for her with a Russian man–a man she didn’t like. One day, a dashing young Austrian portrait painter by the name of Macek came to the general’s home to paint his portrait. The two of them fell in love and eloped. They continued travelling east, with her new husband painting portraits along the way.
Then the Russian Revolution happened. The Bolsheviks killed all of Martha’s mother-in-law’s family, except for one who escaped to America. Martha told me her in-laws once wrote to “the American Macek,” but received no reply. (Martha described this person to me as “the American Macek,” but his name obviously wouldn’t have been Macek.) Martha’s in-laws fled to China to escape the Bolsheviks, settling in Shanghai, where they operated an import-export business. Martha’s future husband was born in Shanghai.
They did well in Shanghai–until the Chinese Communist Revolution took place. The Macek family fled China by sea and sailed to Europe, settling in Salzburg, Martha’s mother-in-law didn’t like Austria, so after her husband died, she moved to Sweden and lived there the rest of her life.
Martha herself had two children. Her daughter is named Uschi. Uschi is married to an American and lived in San Jose, California in 1984. Uschi’s husband’s family owned an insurance company. Martha’s son is named Thomas, if I remember correctly. In 1984, Thomas was living in Switzerland and working as a geologist.
About twenty years ago, I was doing genealogical research on my own ancestry. That is, back in the days when all the online genealogy sites were still free. I have all kinds of papers where I jotted down the information I found–but it’s all stashed in the attic somewhere, and I haven’t dug those papers out since. I am supposedly descended from a Sherman who immigrated from England to New Haven, Connecticut in 1632. Just recently, I used the lazy man’s way of tracing one’s ancestry–looking at findagrave.com. I think the following information is accurate. Maybe you’ll see something here that looks familiar.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was named Joel Sherman (15 Mar 1720-25 Jan 1804). He is buried in Talcott Cemetery, Lanesborough, Berkshire County, Massachusetts.
His son was Abel Sherman (15 Aug 1744-15 Aug 1794). Burial: Round Bottom Cemetery, Coal Run, Washington County, Ohio.
His son was Eli Sherman (13 Feb 1781-22 May 1862). Burial: Old Pioneer Cemetery, Saint Albans Township, Licking County, Ohio.
His son was Josiah Sherman (1807-07 Mar 1869). Burial: also in Old Pioneer Cemetery.
His daughter was Chastina Sherman Hartman (24 Sept 1832-16 Jul 1915). Burial: Camp Ground Cemetery, Tunnelton, Preston County, West Virginia.
Her son was Stephen Albert Douglas Hartman (20 Mar 1861-15 Jul 1928). Burial: also in Camp Ground Cemetery.
His daughter was Lillian Hartman Deahl (06 Mar 1898-19 Nov 1989). Burial: Grafton National Cemetery, Grafton, Taylor County, West Virginia.
Her son (and my father) was Grant Stephen Deahl, Sr. (09 Nov 1923-13 Jan 2013). Burial: West Virginia National Cemetery, Pruntytown, Taylor County, West Virginia.
Ron
Stephen, these are indeed interesting stories.
The Macek story might be of interest relative to https://www.ourheritage.info/2022/07/02/bica-beckons/, although there might be no known connection.
My closest apparent Sherman ancestor, Mary Sherman, was the mother of Mary Chevin who was born in Lincolnshire in 1762. Mary Chevin’s son Timothy Dennis left Lincolnshire for the United States in 1836. Descendants of Timothy’s son John Dennis still hold reunions in Ohio and Michigan: https://www.ourheritage.info/2019/08/05/back-to-the-dennis-reunion/.
Thanks for sharing your stories.
Ron